South Coast Repertory’s Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF) celebrates its 14th annual outing with a lineup of longtime collaborators and new theatrical voices. Since its creation in 1998, PPF has grown into one of the most important festivals of new plays in the United States. Well known as SCR’s premier showcase for introducing new plays and writers to the national stage, PPF also serves as a gathering place for writers and theatre leaders from across the country to meet and share ideas and interests.
This year’s festival takes place April 29 - May 1 and features seven plays during an action-packed weekend: five staged readings and two fully-staged world premieres on SCR’s two major stages.
The New York Times calls SCR “an incubator of major talent… South Coast has mounted an impressive list of acclaimed plays, long before the East Coast establishment got wind of them.” SCR’s 13 previous festivals have introduced 88 new plays to the national stage, including Amy Freed’s The Beard of Avon, Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics, Rolin Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole.
READINGS (play titles link to more information)
THE PRINCE OF ATLANTIS by Steven Drukman directed by Dámaso Rodriguez Friday, April 29, at 1pm on the Segerstrom Stage
Joey is a successful businessman. His brother Kevin has never amounted to anything. But the tables begin to turn when Joey goes to jail just as his long-lost son turns up.
HOW THE WORLD BEGAN by Catherine Trieschmann directed by Shelley Butler Friday, April 29, at 3:30pm on the Julianne Argyros Stage
Folks in Plainview, Kansas, get up in arms when a new teacher, a transplant from New York City, makes an offhand comment in her biology class—about the origins of life.
THE DROLL {Or, a Stage-Play about the END of Theatre} by Meg Miroshnik directed by David Chambers Friday, April 29, at 8pm and Saturday, April 30, at 2:30pm and 8pm in the Nicholas Studio
In a world where theatre has been banned by government edict—where zealots rule with an iron fist—young Nim Dullyn sets out to reclaim the art of the stage for himself—and the world.
ANNAPURNA by Sharr White directed by Loretta Greco Saturday, April 30, at 10:30am on the Julianne Argyros Stage
Out of friends, out of luck, and out of time, Ulysses is resigned to spending the remaining weeks of his life in solitude until Emma walks in...much as she walked out 20 years ago.
CLOUDLANDS book by Octavio Solis music by Adam Gwon lyrics by Octavio Solis and Adam Gwon directed by Octavio Solis musical direction by Dennis Castellano Sunday, May 1, at 10:30am on the Segerstrom Stage
The mystery of her mother’s secret life leads a young woman to become lost in the labyrinth of her own heart in this stunning new musical drama about desire and its transgressions.
FULL PRODUCTIONS
SILENT SKY World Premiere by Lauren Gunderson directed by Anne Justine D'Zmura April 1 - May 1, 2011 on the Segerstrom Stage
In the early 1900s, women astronomers weren't taken seriously. But when Henrietta Leavitt studied the stars, what she found there altered her life—and changed our universe forever.
COMPLETENESS World Premiere by Itamar Moses directed by Pam MacKinnon April 17 - May 8, 2011 on the Julianne Argyros Stage
Megabytes and microbes collide in a 21st century romantic comedy about the timeless confusions of love.
INFORMATION
Tickets for readings are $12 each. Tickets for full productions range in price from $31 to $65.
Theatre professionals: please contact Kimberly Colburn (kimberly@scr.org) at 714-708-5841 for industry packages and more information.
The Pacific Playwrights Festival is made possible with support from The Shubert Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pacific Playwrights Festival Honorary Producers (Sophie and Larry Cripe, Yvonne and Damien Jordan, John and Sue Murphy, Thomas B. Rogers and Sarah J. Anderson, and Linda and Tod White). Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the Edgerton Foundation for supporting the development of new plays.
Coast Magazine is the Media Partner and The Wyndham Orange County Hotel is the Official Hotel of the Pacific Playwrights Festival. To book hotel reservations for the festival, call the Wyndam at 866-747-2635.
Read more about the Pacific Playwrights Festival.
See the list of play titles presented during previous Pacific Playwrights Festivals.
